This last May I was ordained an Elder in the United Methodist Church by the North Indiana Conference. At the same time my conference membership was transferred to Kansas East as Heather and I were moving home. I was and will forever be grateful for North Indiana’s willingness to ordain me even as I was leaving to serve another annual conference. Bishop Coyner said it to me well, “our Board of Ordained Ministry evaluates candidates for their aptitude and readiness for ministry within the United Methodist Church.”

As I moved through the ordination process I had my share of frustrations and trying times, but was ultimately ordained at 28 having completd the process as quickly as was possible at the time. Now serving as an elder in the Kansas East Conference I have a desire to serve on the Board. My desire stems from several factors:

First of all, I want to be a part of helping create and maintain healthy systems that affirm and develop people for ministry within the church.

I feel that having just completed the process and not yet being 30 puts me in a unique position to bring a generational perspective to the process.

I feel that having gone through the process in a different annual conference I can look at systems and structures utilized by Kansas East with an outsider’s perspective.

Most of all, I am grateful for people who provided me with support, encouragement, and quality mentoring during my time in the process and I hope to be able to do the same for others.

I called the chair of the Board last fall and let her know of my interest, but I’ve recently learned that she’s retiring and I’m feeling a nudge to track down someone on the conference nominating committee to let them know of my interest and my willingness to serve. Any thoughts?

All of this comes to mind today as I found two great blogs reflecting on the process (in different annual conferences): Will Duel talks about his frustrations and Matt Judkins his good experience.

3 responses to “Board of Ordained Ministry”

Hey Jeff. Thanks for this post and the associated links. I hope you get to serve on BOOM where you are. I think you have a lot to bring.
My experience of the ordination process was good but I still think the process is long and not always targeting the areas which make a good pastor.
What I would like to see happen also is a revamping of seminary education. I got many good things from my seminary but I also realize my education came way short on some critical items like leadership, conflict management to name just a a couple.